Ouya is real, and here’s the printed circuit board to prove it

It's been a while since we heard anything about Ouya, the Android-powered open source home game console that became a major Kickstarter success earlier this year. Now, Ouya founder Julie Uhrman says the system is done with the initial design phase and is moving on to final development before mass production.

The first development run of printed circuit boards for the system fit on a small wafer about half the size of a can of coke, as seen above. With these in hand, Uhrman says the team is moving on to the Engineering Verification Testing phase, which involves fine-tuning the software and hardware performance and weeding out any remaining issues before large-scale production can begin. The team has also used the design time to upgrade the underlying OS for Ouya to the latest version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, though it's unclear how that upgrade will affect the system's customized living room TV interface.

Alpha developer kits are still on target to be delivered in December, but the Ouya team has laid out some basic guidelines for developers to start working on their Ouya games now ahead of that official release. To get an idea of the system's power, developers are advised to test their games on any Android tablet with a TEGRA 3 graphics chip and to plan to output full-screen in at least 720p resolution, without any Android interface elements taking up part of the screen.

Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out). The touchpad on the controller will only be able to register a single touch point, unlike most other Android devices. Ouya consoles will also be shipping with a "soft touch" keyboard for text input, in addition to the primary handheld controller.

Promoted Comments

Of course, what most people don't realize is that the can of Coke pictured is actually 40 ft tall...

10 posts | registered Nov 2, 2011

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

74 Reader Comments

"Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out). The touchpad on the controller will only be able to register a single touch point, unlike most other Android devices."

Did people know this when they sent their money in?

This is why I don't really care for Kickstarter. It would be far better to have a business go through the usual obstacles to production to ensure the presented idea does not vary significantly from delivered product.

"Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out). The touchpad on the controller will only be able to register a single touch point, unlike most other Android devices."

I was about to get really mad about the multi-touch thing (not so much about multi-tasking), until I saw the controller (I hadn't followed ouya that closely).

Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out).

What kind of multitasking would you do with a game console, exactly? Downloading, maybe? Some kind of friends network with chat perhaps? Maybe, but this doesn't seem like much of an issue to me, especially when you want apps to know that they will get consistent high performance with limited console resources. Am I missing something?

"Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out). The touchpad on the controller will only be able to register a single touch point, unlike most other Android devices."

I hope this takes off, because I'd love to see some open-source competition in the console gaming market. My only real concern is that if everyone comes up with their own Android micro-console, we're going to end up with so many different consoles that it will be impossible for developers to target a wide enough variety of devices to really make things work.

I hope that the next step is for Ouya and other Android console developers to build a standardized UI and distribution platform so that users who want to support open source gaming won't get shafted.

"Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out). The touchpad on the controller will only be able to register a single touch point, unlike most other Android devices."

Did people know this when they sent their money in?

This is why I don't really care for Kickstarter. It would be far better to have a business go through the usual obstacles to production to ensure the presented idea does not vary significantly from delivered product.

To be honest, I don't see how one could expect all that much more out of a "game console", which is all it says to be outside of being open source.

Maybe multitasking isn't much to expect these days, but there aren't many (any?) dedicated game devices that can multitask outside of playing custom music playlists.

"Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out). The touchpad on the controller will only be able to register a single touch point, unlike most other Android devices."

Did people know this when they sent their money in?

This is why I don't really care for Kickstarter. It would be far better to have a business go through the usual obstacles to production to ensure the presented idea does not vary significantly from delivered product.

As one of the Kickstarter backers, this doesn't bother me at all, and I'm glad they went through Kickstarter.

They're planning to make it easily hackable, so people who want a less gaming centric, more general purpose OS will probably have options like CyanogenMod or even Ubuntu (which is now available for Nexus 7) pretty quickly. For gaming, I'd rather have other apps closed down anyway.

The single-touch pad on the controller is also not a big concern for me. If I was going to try to hack it into a general purpose nettop PC, I'd probably use a mouse anyway.

I just think it's really cool to see the progress they're making, and not have it completely hidden behind closed doors. Maybe it's just because I tend to be fascinated by how things are designed and created, but I have way more interest in this project than I would if it just showed up on a store shelf one day. In fact, if it was just released as a finished product, I would probably think it was pretty cool, but not bother to get it since I already have a Transformer Infinity that I can hook up to my TV if I want a big screen.

Actually, this discussion has just caused me to start wondering what would happen if I plug my Logitech USB gamepad into my Transformer. I'll have to try that now.

"Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out). The touchpad on the controller will only be able to register a single touch point, unlike most other Android devices."

Did people know this when they sent their money in?

This is why I don't really care for Kickstarter. It would be far better to have a business go through the usual obstacles to production to ensure the presented idea does not vary significantly from delivered product.

Limiting multitasking makes a ton of sense in a gaming console. You otherwise limit how much RAM is usable for gaming because it throws out any guarantee of available memory. Without multitasking, conversely, you get the entirety of RAM for your game minus whatever the core OS uses.

Just consider how the Wii U has 2gb of RAM but only 1gb usable for gaming. Multitasking capability is the likeliest reason for that.

OUYA is not going to connect to the Google Play store, correct? I had initially considered this to be a great potential way to watch Play movies on my TV (as well as potentially game), but if I'm reading the various articles right it won't be connected to Play at all.

Sure, but it doesn't need to use the tippiest-toppiest highest-end processor and GPU to be a great game platform. Look at the Xbox 360 and PS3 - those systems were very quickly "obsoleted" by the ever-changing PC industry, yet developers were able to continue optimizing their code because they weren't trying to hit a moving target. So we have games like Mass Effect 3, Assassin's Creed 3, Halo 4, which all look amazing on a console. And sure, they look even better on a modern $1200 PC - but we're talking about a $300 console based on technology from 2006.

I think you'll see a similar situation with OUYA - there will be plenty of higher performing tablets and phones out there, but any developer targeting OUYA won't have to deal with the hundreds (thousands?) of possible hardware combinations that could affect performance. They'll have one target, and so we may end up seeing games on OUYA, using the Tegra 3, that look and run better than games in the Android Appstore trying to target the lowest common denominator (which I think is still Gingerbread, and the specs that were typical of gingerbread phones).

I hope this takes off, because I'd love to see some open-source competition in the console gaming market. My only real concern is that if everyone comes up with their own Android micro-console, we're going to end up with so many different consoles that it will be impossible for developers to target a wide enough variety of devices to really make things work.

I hope that the next step is for Ouya and other Android console developers to build a standardized UI and distribution platform so that users who want to support open source gaming won't get shafted.

I'd rather they use regular Linux which is 100% open source.

I won't argue that regular Linux is probably more straightforward than Android, but it's a heck of a lot easier to develop Android apps on Windows and Mac desktops than it would be to try to write Linux programs. Also, Linux doesn't have the broad base of games and apps that are already available out there for Android.

However, the specifics "under the hood" don't matter. What matters is the developer's and end user's experience. On the developer side, the environment needs to be as easy to use as possible. On the end user side, it needs to "just work."

As a backer, I am very excited about this. Multitasking on a game console is less of my concern right now. I don't care if it play custom music while playing games. Less footprint in the memory equals better gaming experience at run time.

OUYA is not going to connect to the Google Play store, correct? I had initially considered this to be a great potential way to watch Play movies on my TV (as well as potentially game), but if I'm reading the various articles right it won't be connected to Play at all.

That's right. The only devices that get Google Play are devices from companies that have an agreement with Google to include Google's apps.

Unless I miss my guess, you ought to be able to install other stores, though - including the Amazon AppStore.

As a developer, I cannot wait for my developer board to arrive next month. As for the multi tasking ... one of the "tricks" or .. standards when developing on a desktop (any OS), is to use one thread for rendering ... one for input ... one for networking ... one for calculations ....

OUYA is not going to connect to the Google Play store, correct? I had initially considered this to be a great potential way to watch Play movies on my TV (as well as potentially game), but if I'm reading the various articles right it won't be connected to Play at all.

And if this catches on, at all, there will be an AOSP ROM with Gapps (incl. store) within days.

I hope this takes off, because I'd love to see some open-source competition in the console gaming market. My only real concern is that if everyone comes up with their own Android micro-console, we're going to end up with so many different consoles that it will be impossible for developers to target a wide enough variety of devices to really make things work.

I hope that the next step is for Ouya and other Android console developers to build a standardized UI and distribution platform so that users who want to support open source gaming won't get shafted.

I'd rather they use regular Linux which is 100% open source.

The Android OS is 100% open source. Google's proprietary apps aren't, but OUYA is built on the 100% open source Android.

But I tried GTA 3 on my Nexus 7 with max settings (OUYA's target is 720p. I guess we'll call Nexus 7 800p then), and I can tell you that it ran absolutely fluid.

I know GTA 3 is not state of the art, but I am yet to see any game that the Tegra 3 doesn't just run fluid.

edit:

Look at Dark Meadow: the Pact on youtube This is the version optimized for Tegra 3. And it's not slow IMHO. It can run games (though I thought the game sucked, so I uninstalled it).

The cost of a controller is fairly expensive. If the controller is $30, and the console with a controller is $100, then they're basically saying the console itself is $70.

Comparing the hardware of a $300 tablet to a $70 console isn't fair. Part of the appeal is being able to play on a large screen (your TV) with a real controller on the cheap. They're also promising all games will have some free mode (completely free, demo levels, freemium model, whatever).

Only wish it had a headphone/stereo jack so I could more easily use with PC speakers or headphones. I don't even have a receiver with HDMI in (yet) so I'll be stuck with TV speakers unless I buy one of those fancy adapters that splits out the audio, but that hurts the value proposition.

Would I be wrong in saying that the main appeal here is a pretty box and custom software, and that there is nothing special about the Tegra 3 based hardware? Theoretically, anyone could make something like the Raspberry Pi except with Android with just the PCB and throw in a controller and play all the same games for a lower cost. There are already a few controllers for Android out now.

I really WANT to be enthusiastic about the Ouya, but in a single generation tablets with HDMI output will far outstrip it (Tegra 3 HDMI output tablets can be found, but there is a big performance penalty for dual screen, and AFAIK you can't set it to only use the TV as the screen). Yes, a single hardware standard like consoles helps get the most out of hardware, the current consoles prove that with x1900/7800 class hardware doing far more than could be expected of them on PC, but still, the power of these SoCs is shooting up at an extraordinary rate.

A single controller standard also helps developers, I'm not sure how that stands on Android right now, maybe someone can tell me but if there isn't a unifying standard there should be.

Sorry that's ranty, I'm just not sure what to think of this, I really want to like it but I'm not sure anything will come of it.

"Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out). The touchpad on the controller will only be able to register a single touch point, unlike most other Android devices."

Did people know this when they sent their money in?

This is why I don't really care for Kickstarter. It would be far better to have a business go through the usual obstacles to production to ensure the presented idea does not vary significantly from delivered product.

To be fair, it's supposed to be a gaming console first, other stuff second. With a console you want all of the power on tap devoted to the game, not running half a dozen other things.

I'm much more worried about their progress on their platform's software than its hardware. From a user's perspective, skinning Android + providing a custom storefront does not sound terribly complicated, but there's a reason carriers and phone manufacturers are usually so behind on updating to the newest version of Android when they have their own skin. It's harder (and more time-consuming) than it looks.

No multitasking makes a lot of sense for a game console. You want all the power for the game you're playing, not wasted on other junk that isn't part of the game. People have computers for that.

Single touch point on the controller is certainly a money-saving move. Also understandable - the touchpad is a secondary thing and won't be used for scrolling or gestures like on a tablet or notebook. With only $100 to spread around, it sounds like they're making smart choices.

Still think its a pity they went with tegra 3 .Lot less risk to go with an existing chip with reference designs but still disappointing in terms of it'll be nearly two generations behind by the time they are in peoples hands.

What other gaming console runs more than one game at once ?No point to running more than one game at a time on a dedicated game device.

One good thing is if older chips/devices like this (and the raspberry pi) can help more people to program in a tighter more resource constrained fashion thats a big win.

Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out).

What kind of multitasking would you do with a game console, exactly? Downloading, maybe? Some kind of friends network with chat perhaps? Maybe, but this doesn't seem like much of an issue to me, especially when you want apps to know that they will get consistent high performance with limited console resources. Am I missing something?

Downloading in the background isn't active multi-tasking. So I'm hopeful that they meant to say "you cannot actively multi-task" or, for example, play 3 games simultaneously.

I hope this takes off, because I'd love to see some open-source competition in the console gaming market. My only real concern is that if everyone comes up with their own Android micro-console, we're going to end up with so many different consoles that it will be impossible for developers to target a wide enough variety of devices to really make things work.

I hope that the next step is for Ouya and other Android console developers to build a standardized UI and distribution platform so that users who want to support open source gaming won't get shafted.

I'd rather they use regular Linux which is 100% open source.

AOSP is 100% open-source. The only thing that isn't open-source on most devices currently sold are the drivers from the hardware manufacturers (although some are open-sourcing them) and the Google Apps (ie: Gmail, Google Maps, etc) which you cannot distribute without Google's approval/licensing.

"Elsewhere in the developers' note, the team mention that Ouya will only be able to run one game or app at a time (so background multitasking is out). The touchpad on the controller will only be able to register a single touch point, unlike most other Android devices."

Did people know this when they sent their money in?

This is why I don't really care for Kickstarter. It would be far better to have a business go through the usual obstacles to production to ensure the presented idea does not vary significantly from delivered product.

It made sense for them to do it this way, to save RAM for the games being played. Would you rather have the game only use 50 MB of whatever is normally allowed on Android, or would you rather it uses 500-800 MB? It can't do that if it has to save every other app in RAM, too.

I also think I understand why they couldn't go with Tegra 4. They need to give the devs the alpha kits, and they couldn't have done that this early with Tegra 4. HOWEVER, I still think it's a mistake to choose Tegra 3 that late in its lifecycle.

They shoul'dve either went with Exynos 5 Dual, which is already out in the Chromebook, so they could've had their alpha kits ready on the same timeline, but with much more powerful hardware - or they could've waited a few more months to start the OUYA Kickstarter campaign, and promise to launch it next summer with Tegra 4. That way they would've been aligned directly with Tegra 4, and people would've actually been impressed by how well the games look on this first generation OUYA console. I doubt the feeling will be the same for Tegra 3 games in 2013.

I'm not going to buy one without an A15 CPU and an OpenGL ES 3.0/OpenCL GPU, so I'm going to wait for generation 2.0 of OUYA, if it will even exist. But I hope they don't repeat this mistake again. Either they are already working on the Tegra 4 upgrade, and are ready to launch it by next fall, which seems very unlikely - or they should completely skip the Tegra 4 generation, and go straight for Tegra 5 for early 2014.